Glenfarclas 50 Years Old

A 50 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, at 40.6%, 146 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. It has been run by six generations of the Grant family, one of Scotch whisky's last truly independent houses. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. Its spirit is matured almost wholly in sherry butts brought up from Jerez. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas.

It was worked unhurried through the stillhouse, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. It was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood deep in the rich spirit. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body.

At a hearty 40.6% it carries real weight. A deep, dark sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The mouthfeel is full and coating, the fruit dark and sweet. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a rich Speyside malt of dried fruit and nut.